Toxic cough syrup kills 16

At least 16 people have died after drinking a toxic cough syrup in the Pakistani city of Lahore, forcing authorities to close three pharmacies and a medicine factory.

Officials said the deaths occurred in the low-income Shahdra Town neighbourhood between Friday and Sunday, with the majority of victims being drug addicts who took the syrup to get high, according to local police station chief Atif Zulfiqar.

The scandal comes after around 100 heart patients died in January in Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, after taking faulty medicine made locally.